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ING DIRECT says it has a strong affiliation with social enterprise in Australia and projects will be selected by a panel that includes representatives from the School for Social Entrepreneurs and crowdfunding platform for social innovation, StartSomeGood, Dreamstarter’s crowdfunding platform partner.

“ING DIRECT developed Dreamstarter because we believe each and every one of us has the power to help our communities get ahead. We’re keen to enable people to bring to life their own vision for a better future and we’re really passionate about playing our part in that," Richtor said.

Through Dreamstarter, ING DIRECT says it will provide seed funding towards selected projects or ideas that are also supported by the Australian community through crowdfunding – a model which uses the power of social media and collaboration to raise funds for projects which communities collectively wish to support.

“As Australia’s first online bank, we want to make it simple for people to connect with what the community truly values – crowdfunding is a great way to do this. Quite simply, the combined contributions from lots of people can make big things happen,” Richtor said.

ING DIRECT says it will support 15-20 projects by the end of the year with the average funding amount about $5,000.

Recruitment of new Dreamstarter projects will be open until July 31 and selected projects’ crowdfunding campaigns will go live in September. An additional round of funding will open in October.

Projects will be selected based on a range of factors including likely social impact, if the campaign will succeed and originality. Applicants have the flexibility to request various funding amounts according to the size of their idea.

For selected projects, ING DIRECT says it will fund up to 50 per cent of the project’s ‘tipping point’ – the amount requested for the project to kick off. This will require the ‘Dreamstarters’ to enlist the support of the broader community to ensure their project goes ahead.

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